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In this Photoshop tutorial, Richard Harrington begins a tutorial series on how to achieve transparency in Photoshop by removing objects from their background so that they can be carried over to a NLE or motion graphics application. Achieving proper transparency in Adobe Photoshop involves layer masking and alpha channels. In part one of this series Richard starts simple and works on creating transparency for a logo with a white background and how to export the logo properly to preserve the transparency data.

Achieving Transparency - 2Play VideoIn the second part of this series on achieving transparency, take a look at other examples where you need to introduce transparency into an image. In this example you will see how to knock out the background of buildings that have a sky background and replace the background with an alpha channel. This method can also be used for product shots or other elements shot in front of a colored background.

In the third part of this series on achieving transparency, learn about using calculations. In this example learn how to create an alpha channel to turn the sky in a scene with trees into a masked area working around the complex shapes of the leaves and branches in the trees to make a clean key. Calculations is much like doing a chroma key or other types of keying techniques.

Achieving Transparency - 4Play VideoPart four of the series on achieving transparency revealing a few gotchas that occur at different times when creating alpha channels. One of these is when using layer styles on an image to create various effects such as the glow effect, the transparency information from the layer style does not extend into the alpha channel. In this tutorial you will learn the tips to work around these sort of problems.

THE ADAPTIVE WIDE ANGLE COMMANDPlay VideoAdobe Photoshop CS6 adds to an existing feature that you may not have even been using called Photomerge. Rich Harrington will show you the new Adaptive Wide Angle command to remove all of the lens and perspective distortion in merged photos. You will also learn how to use these exact techniques with video footage, too.

THE BLUR LABPlay VideoAdobe Photoshop CS6 includes three new blurring filters. Rich Harrington will show you new ways to blur specific areas in a photo, as well as achieve tilt sheet and vignette effects.

Adobe created quite a stir when it recently announced a public beta for the next major update to Photoshop. Is this the result of some very smart marketing, or perhaps an act of desperation, due to the harsh economic realities facing most creatives these days? What is the future of this critical production tool?